Phoebe McMullan:The Rider

Phoebe McMullan’s practice focusses on the surreal and mystic as a form of escapism. She creates strange and new worlds in her work which are replete with repeated motifs of flowers, animals and iconography from both traditional art history and contemporary culture.

During the most recent lockdown in the UK caused by the coronavirus pandemic, McMullan focussed in particular on mythical and celestial landscapes. The Rider (2021) is a stitched quilt made up of painted cotton fabric depicting a blue rider with antlers atop a mythological looking creature floating on a pale pink cloud. The clouds populate the surface of the quilt dotted against a deep indigo sky.

McMullan has stated that the work is about ‘a greater journey’, conjuring the idea of an epic tale of mythic proportions, we are transported to an alternate world which sparks endless imaginative possibilities. Where is the rider going? And for what purpose? The title of the work is indicative of McMullan’s engagement with the history of art, reminiscent of European expressionism, which is also alluded to through the work’s colour palette and curved, organic forms.

The artist blurs the lines between human and non-human in her figurative forms creating a fluidity which is replicated through her use of soft textures and shapes that build the picturescape. Similarly, McMullan juxtaposes her use of textile and quilt batting, with its association of domesticity and femininity, and her dream-like, surreal subject matter, collapsing preconceived notions of high and low art. The creation of these undefined worlds endows the work with a freedom of expression, allowing for continued interpretation.